A ranking member of parliament’s Foreign Affairs committee wants a bi-partisan inquiry into the issue of embattled gold dealership firm Menzgold.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said with such an inquiry, all of the murkiness, the clout and mystery surrounding the operations of the company and its wanted CEO, Nana Appiah Mensah will be unravelled.

“This whole thing right from where he was investigated to when we were told he was declared wanted…the circumstance surrounding his leaving the country is al the reason why I am calling for an inquiry.

“I am referring to a serious bi-partisan parliamentary inquiry one, not the farcical one that we have had in recent times,” he told Evans Mensah on Top Story, Monday.

The North Tongu MP’s comment follows a release by the Ghana Police Service that the country’s most wanted man, Nana Appiah Mensah popularly referred to as NAM1 has been in the custody of Dubai police for at least one month.

North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

According to the statement, NAM1 was arrested on December 7, 2018, the police statement said.

This is even before an Accra Circuit Court issued a warrant for his arrest January 9, 2019, and also alerted Interpol which has a presence in 194 countries.

Related: Confirmed: NAM1 nabbed in Dubai more than one month ago

Nana Appiah Mensah is wanted for defrauding by false pretence and alleged money laundering. This was after his company Menzgold failed to pay thousands of clients’ returns on their investments.

There has been agitation from clients since September 2018 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered his company to shut down its so-called gold trading operation.

All these development, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa says was a day late and a dollar short in coming.

NAM1’s fleet of cars at his Trassaco residence in Accra

According to him, the US and other developed countries do not wait for such issues to escalate before instituting a bi-partisan parliamentary inquiry.

He cited the U.S. Congress and U.K. parliament quizzing Facebook over Cambridge Analytica after issues of breach of privacy by the social media giant.

“Congress during the financial crisis in the U.S. on Lehman Brothers collapse and there are many precedences the world over. Serious counties don’t take these matters lightly especially when lives are at stake.

“He has destroyed lives, people lives are at stake and the impact on the economy is not yet known…there is talk of over a million customers and these are not matters you leave to hazy and mysteries,” the former deputy education minister said.

For his part, security expert Adam Bonaa agreed that such an inquiry is good stressing all the Menzgold customers want is their money. 

 “If only the bi-partisan parliamentary inquiry or committee to be established try and get the money for the customers, I am all for it. For now, I want to believe that whatever committee we are going to be told that let’s wait until they finish their work before customers are paid,” he said. 

Listen to the audio: